Two and a half years worth of monthly Muni passes. Original street value: $1395.

Rising Fuel Prices Taking Toll on Airline Industry

Top airline executives said in a conference that even more flight cuts are on the way. Published flight schedules show a 12-percent reduction in seats at McCarran come October. But a top airline industry executive says more cuts are on the way that have not yet been publicly disclosed and are not yet reflected in official flight schedules.

"The impact of oil prices today is worse on the industry than the impact that 9/11 was," said Scott Kirby, President of U.S. Airways.

...

Walker also told the conference the Ivanpah Airport will only be built if McCarran reaches its capacity limits. The recent turmoil in the airline industry is making projections difficult and Walker says it will likely be 2011 before a final decision is made on whether to build Ivanpah.

Mojave National Preserve is safe for another few years, at least!

I'd been wondering if I'd actually end up going anywhere this summer, but suddenly these things all fell into place!

USA1550 Fri Jul 25 2008   dep KSFO 1200   arr KPHX 1402
AWE0320 Mon Jul 28 2008   dep KPHX 0724   arr KLAS 0836
AWE0466 Mon Jul 28 2008   dep KLAS 0928   arr KSFO 1103

Phoenix to visit family (grandparents' 65th anniversary!, etc). Going to be hot as hell, but hopefully also monsoony -- dust storms, big clouds, wind, flash floods! Flying US Airways one last time before they completely melt. It was slightly cheaper than United, but I have the feeling by the time they're done nickel and dime'ing me, it'll have been the same. At least I get to pass through Las Vegas! I can gamble between gates.

UAL0501 Fri Aug 15 2008   dep KSFO 1012   arr KSAN 1151
UAL0746 Mon Aug 18 2008   dep KSAN 1857   arr KSFO 2025

cpratt/danlmarmot's wedding in San Diego.

UAL0914 Sat Sep 13 2008   dep KSFO 0755   arr LFPG 0655 (14 Sep) [plane change at KIAD]
UAL0915 Tue Sep 23 2008   dep LFPG 1225   arr KIAD 1449
UAL0233 Tue Sep 23 2008   dep KIAD 1700   arr KSFO 1945

France! I've never been. Haven't actually bought the tickets yet, but these are likely. The United options are a 777 via KIAD or a 767 via KORD. Considering my last 767 experience out of KORD involved a dead APU and a six hour delay, I think I'll avoid that... Anyway, Paris for 8 nights (also with cpratt, etc); thinking of extending the trip on one side and hit up somewhere else while I'm still in the mood to waste dollars on euros. Where should I go?

Also hoping to split a trip to Tokyo with BT KK sometime in the Fall...

Current Location: san francisco, ca, usa.

I just can't stop looking at this photograph.

It's from a roadtrip -- which I enjoyed immensely! -- through the southern desert with valdelane last December. Box Canyon Road has always intrigued me from its name alone, but mystery around it grew as my every attempt to drive on it over the years was foiled by weather and/or construction. This photo proves I've now at least been on it, but I still have no particular idea what the canyon looks like!

Was a beautiful night, though.

Incident: British Airways A319 at Belgrade on June 30th 2008, too much curry
By Simon Hradecky, created Wednesday, Jul 2nd 2008 13:39Z, last updated Wednesday, Jul 2nd 2008 13:42Z

A British Airways Airbus A319-100, registration G-EUOF thought to perform flight BA889 from Belgrade (Serbia) to London Heathrow,EN (UK), had already been boarded, when a strong smell on board stopped takeoff preparations.

Passengers disembarked normally, British Airways said. The flight was cancelled, the airplane ferried to London the following day. The passengers were rebooked onto other flights.

Belgrade Authorities reported, that the passengers panicked in fear of a terrorist gas attack, continuing, that emergency workers with oxygen masks were dispatched to help passengers off the airplane.

The airport authority initially assumed, that a canister containing some acidic chemicals may have burst open in the cargo hold, until they detected a large container with curry spices in the cargo department, that was identified as the source of the smell.

avherald.com has good aviation incident reports scraped from around the world, just wish they had an RSS feed. It's actually sort of frightening the number of random little (but still cause diversions/cancellations) incidents that happen daily. Though I suppose there's significantly less if you remove all the obvious troublemakers (IL-76's, Tu-154's, etc)...

Current Mood: pining for curry

The graphics could use some work, and it'd be nice if the design more matched the other new mapwork they've posted on the platforms, but otherwise I like! Much cleaner than the Alcatel schematics, and, uhm, antialiased.

The really eerie thing about the air this evening is how much it reminds me of Iraq. The color, the smell, the tickle it inspires in the throat. All it's missing is a bit more diesel and jet exhaust.

Current Mood: fire

My latest three dollar amazon purchase is here! New 1978 revised edition.

KSFO 230456Z 30012KT 10SM FEW009 SCT013 12/09 A3004 RMK AO2 SLP172 SCT013 FU N-SE T01220094

San Bruno Mountain is on fire! SFO traffic unaffected except for numerous CDFCAL FIRE helibucket operations. Excellent photos from hepkitten. A couple more good shots from Agus.

Current Mood: fu
Current Music: KSFO tower one two zero point five

The first flight by an Indian airline into SFO lands tonight: Jet Airways flight 210, Mumbai to San Francisco via Shanghai-Pudong. Exciting! Meeting Pete, and Agus, and maybe a few other flickr people down in Millbrae tonight for the occasion. (Feel free to join!)

Should be a good year for new stuff at SFO: Emirates is starting direct Dubai service in late October (using one of their snappy new 777-200LR Worldliners, the longest-range passenger aircraft). Also, Air India has apparently had some success in getting the US to let them open up another West Coast route, which will be Bangalore to SFO direct over the pole, originally planned to start this August. (Air India is one of the carriers in the original regulation, so they don't have to do the ridiculous stop in Shanghai first.)

Enjoying the weather this week.

Current Mood: :)

Current Location: Nanaimo, British Columbier, Canader
Current Mood: rain

Bad overpriced ferry coffee and dreary weather... I'm having flashbacks to Norway!

I'd never been to the Horseshoe Bay terminal before. For some reason I was expecting something a bit more -- Tsawassen is a bustling port by comparison.

Is anyone I know still living in Vancouver? I'll be there Monday afternoon through Tuesday afternoon if anyone can meet up. Staying at the Sandman on Davie.

Also: through Monday morning in Nanaimo with j0ni, yay.

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terraplanner's 30th birthday weekend/party in Moss Beach has gone fantastically! The mimosas are still flowing...

Current Location: moss beach, ca